Myanmar: China Offers The Gift Of Compromise

For the last month China has been conducting a “charm offensive” with the new, non-military government of Burma. Meanwhile the leaders of the former military government are bracing for the most serious attack on its power and corrupt business empire. The new parliament has, in theory, the power to undo all the laws the generals put in place during 2011 to preserve that wealth and provide immunity from prosecution. For half a century the military ran the country as a dictatorship that mainly benefitted the generals and their cronies. The majority of Burmese opposed that and made that clear during the 2015 elections for parliament. China was the major foreign partners of the military government, especially when it came to investing in Burma when the rest of the world would not. Chinese economic projects in the north are not only unpopular with the tribes there but also with most Burmese because the Chinese paid the generals well (with bribes and business opportunities) to keep the tribal rebels and unarmed civilians from interfering up north. That protection was not effective and now many of those multi-billion dollar Chinese projects are stalled and the Chinese have made it clear they will to do business with new government on whatever terms the new government wants.  (Courtesy of strategypage.com)